June 27, 2014

Mayo Clinic still mum on SE Rochester building

There's no question that an unmarked 22,000-square-foot commercial center is being built in south Rochester's Shoppes on Maine area.

The question is what will it be used for when completed?

The half-completed gray and blue building at 4544 Canal Place S.E. stands at the corner of Canal Place and Maine Avenue Southeast.

It's described as "Future Mayo Clinic Southeast" in city building permits dating back to April. However, Mayo Clinic isn't acknowledging any involvement.

"We don’t have anything to share at this time. When we do — I’ll certainly let you know" is how Rebecca F. Eisenman of Mayo Clinic Communications responded to questions on June 18.

In April, Eisenman did acknowledge that Mayo Clinic is interested in the area.

"We are exploring options to improve our ability to improve access to community care for our employees and those who depend on us for these services," she wrote. "Future options may include expansion of facilities and services in southeast Minnesota, but no specific details are available at this time."

The owner of the project is Canal Place Pointe Inc., which is based nearby at Suite 200 of 4325 Maine Avenue. That's also the address of the office of Maine Street Development Co. Tom Hexum, who manages the Maine Street Development projects with partner Ron Schultz from that office, filed the original land development application for the building. He says it's owned by a group of local investors, though he is not part of that group.

Hexum describes the building as a Mayo Clinic project.

Building permits show that just the structural shell of the Canal Place Pointe complex is valued at $1.4 million. There is a half-circle drive under an 880-square-foot canopy in front that would be handy for a medical facility. The parking lot features 109 parking spaces.

The whole facility, being built by Benike Construction, is on two acres of land. The local design firm SEH-Yaggy, formerly known as Yaggy Colby Associates, planned the project.

Comments

That is one ugly building, so it has to be a Mayo Clinic building.

Their new proton beam building in downtown looks like a fallout bunker. Now that they are receiving public money (i.e. DMC), is there any way to put pressure on Mayo to put up some decent looking building?

Mark, Mayo Clinic is not directly receiving public money as part of DMC. The public money is for infrastructure projects and doesn't kick-in until Mayo has contributed a certain amount of money. Get your facts straight.